Trinity Repertory Company's new season will include two bold stagings that incorporate three works each by Shakespeare and Molière as well as a new musical by Bye Bye Birdie and Annie composer Charles Strouse.

The 41st season for the Providence, Rhode Island company will also include Suzan Lori Parks' Pulitzer Prize winner, Topdog/Underdog, Drew Hayden Taylor's festival hit The Buz' Gem Blues (Trinity Rep’s Theater From the Four Directions) and the Thomas "Fats" Waller musical Ain't Misbehavin'. The holiday tradition, A Christmas Carol also returns for the new season.

In an epic undertaking, Trinity Rep will present The Henriad: Shakespeare’s Kings — a three-play cycle of the Bard's Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V performed in repertory. The classic tales of monarchs, fathers and sons and the struggle for power comes to life through the visions of directors Kevin Moriarty, Amanda Dehnert and Trinity Rep artistic director Oskar Eustis, respectively.

The company presents another trio of works by a classic author with The Molière Impromptu — a world premiere adaptation by Chris Bayes which combines the short comedies The Seductive Countess, The Imaginary Cuckold and The Rehearsal at Versailles. Bayes directs his staging which takes audiences to the court of Louis XIV where Molière's troupe are offered a chance to redeem their flop by returning with a new show.

Charles Strouse pens the new musical You Never Know which will make its debut on the Trinity Rep stage. Set in a posh resort in 1948's Miami, the musical within-a-musical centers on "a philandering Presidential candidate, his movie-star wife, and our hero – the composer of a Broadway hit that's just over the horizon," according to a release.

Strouse previously told Playbill On-Line (March, 2004) that he was impressed by Trinity Rep's conceptual take on Annie even though the Amanda Dehnert staging was rebuked by his collaborators. (The production added a bleaker vision whereby the title character awoke to find her adventures were a dream.) He approached Dehnert with the new musical which he thought would match her sensibilities. The complete season (subject to change) is as follows: